Westshore publically owned waste water/sewage treatment option is back
Posted by Cheryl McLachlan on March 26, 2010
All the talk from the local mayors and councillors from Colwood and Langford was that the waster treatment and energy reclamation facilities on the Westshore would be a private-partnerships with the cities of Colwood and Langford. As an attendee at all the CRD Open Houses on the Westshore about waste water treatment, I noted that the vast majority of all the residents who came out to the meetings and took part in the group discussions, were strongly in favour of fully publically owned and operated facilities.
The CRD Core Area Liquid Waste Management Committee (CALWMC) must have felt that pressure. The original recommendation was that the West Shore plant and resource recovery components of the energy centre were be procured with an alternative service delivery (design-build-finance-operate or design-build-operate), otherwise known as a P3 approach.
However, in a media release by the CRD, on March 25, 2010, “the Capital Regional District (CRD)’s Core Area Liquid Waste Management Committee has approved the Business Case for Provincial Funding and Procurement for the Core Area Wastewater Treatment Project. The West Shore plant and resource recovery components of the energy centre will be procured using either traditional or an alternative service delivery (design-build-finance-operate or design-build-operate), otherwise known as a P3 approach. The publically funded is back as an option for the Westshore .”
Those recommendation will now be forwarded to a special meeting of the CRD Board on Wednesday March 31 at 1:30pm at 625 Fisgard Street. It is vitally important that citizens from the Westshore attend this meeting and let their CRD representaives know they are accountable to the citizens for their decisions, and where they stand on public ownership.
Colwood’s rep. to the CRD is Mayor Dave Saunders (mayorsaunders@telus.net)
Langford’s rep. to the CRD is Councillor Denise Blackwell (denise.blackwell@shaw.ca)
Cheryl McLachlan said
Victoria: public sewage treatment could save $100 million
Mar 19, 2010 02:42 PM
A new report by B.C.’s most respected forensic accountant, Ron Parks, finds in favour of public operation of sewage treatment in the Capital Regional District (CRD).
Using the lower rate (rate would be 5.19 per cent – linked to the current cost of public borrowing through the Municipal Finance Authority), public operation is actually $116 million cheaper than a full public private partnership (P3) and $58 million cheaper than the mixed public/P3 (hybrid) option.
http://cupe.ca/privatization/public-sewage-treatment-100-million
Cheryl McLachlan said
People have until this Monday at 4PM to register to speak to the CRD about procurement of services and to decide on a public or private/P3 option. Go to the following link to register to speak:
http://www.crd.bc.ca/about/board/addressing.htm
The recommendation will be forwarded to a special meeting of the CRD Board on Wednesday March 31 at 1:30pm – 625 Fisgard Street. It is important as well that people from the Westshore attend the CRD meetings to show people on the Westshore do care and want their input honoured.
Anonymous said
Did any of the elected Westshore politicians actually campaign on privatization of sewage treatment? Did they even hint that they were looking at splitting from the CRD & setting up their own utility (which would like be privately run), and that this might include water services? If not, then they don’t have a mandate from the electorate to do this. I guarantee you that most Westshore residents haven’t got a clue that this is what’s coming down the pipes for them.